Luke's Football blog

Roy Hodgson has been appointed Crystal Palace manager for the second time, and it was a controversial decision in the end as they previously dumped him two years ago in hope of a rebuild phase with Patrick Vieira, but that ultimately failed with him not getting a win so far in 2023 as we are reaching April, which led to him being sacked, but no one expected Roy to comeback, which led to fans complaining and wanting Parish and the board out. Roy, however, knows what he’s doing, but at 75 years old, will he have the fight and passion for it, or is he there for one last pay check before he retires for the third time? Here’s what you might expect in his second stint in charge of his boyhood club.

Roy has a notorious brand of football and his usual go-to formation is a 4-4-2, which has worked well in the past as it allows his team to defend as a unit and operate as a low block team with every man behind the ball when they are out of possession and hit teams on the counter when they have possession of the ball as back when Roy was in charge, they were one of the most dangerous teams on the counter, with the pace of Zaha and Townsend causing problems for defenders in the past. Roy Hodgson’s sides are usually organised and well run, which might be needed in a relegation fight as the teams in the lower end of the table show more fight to try and stay in the Premier League. However, in his last job, he got Watford relegated after he was brought in to save the sinking ship left by two managers before him but this time it could be different as the Eagles have a lot of quality players to stay up but it’s just about getting them to fight and get a few wins to stay up for the time being.

This was the team from Roy’s last game in charge, with seven of the players still at the club, but it’s a much younger squad nowadays as the average age of the squad in his last game was 30.5 years. The squad right now has more quality younger players in the peak of their careers, which makes it surprising that they are in this mess right now, but Roy might be the person to get them out of this mess. He has a very good history in the Premier League, having taken Fulham to a Europa League final and kept a Crystal Palace side solid in the league after a torrid time under the Frank De Boer regime. He may have had a horrible time with Liverpool and Watford, but they didn’t have the right players to play his style of football. I feel that with him working with some of the players already and having an understanding of the club, he will prove to be the right appointment for the time being.

The downside is that the board has completely ruined the club and put them at risk with that appointment as it could go horribly wrong as the players will have to get used to Roy Hodgson’s football, which ain’t the most glamorous of things as he likes to just wait and hit teams in the counter and barely use substitutes unless he has to, which can be annoying to see as fans would love to see someone else who can change the game in an instance. Overall, I feel it will be an okay stint if he can get his ideas across quickly and make sure his team can show fight on the pitch to get out of this situation and get a good finish to the season.